<
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/hp-ceo-blocking-third-party-ink-from-printers-fights-viruses/>
"Last Thursday, HP CEO Enrique Lores addressed the company's controversial
practice of bricking printers when users load them with third-party ink.
Speaking to
CNBC Television, he said, "We have seen that you can embed
viruses in the cartridges. Through the cartridge, [the virus can] go to the
printer, [and then] from the printer, go to the network."
That frightening scenario could help explain why HP, which was hit this month
with another lawsuit over its Dynamic Security system, insists on deploying it
to printers.
Dynamic Security stops HP printers from functioning if an ink cartridge without
an HP chip or HP electronic circuitry is installed. HP has issued firmware
updates that block printers with such ink cartridges from printing, leading to
the above lawsuit (PDF), which is seeking class-action certification. The suit
alleges that HP printer customers were not made aware that printer firmware
updates issued in late 2022 and early 2023 could result in printer features not
working. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and an injunction preventing HP
from issuing printer updates that block ink cartridges without an HP chip.
But are hacked ink cartridges something we should actually be concerned about?
To investigate, I turned to
Ars Technica Senior Security Editor Dan Goodin.
He told me that he didn't know of any attacks actively used in the wild that
are capable of using a cartridge to infect a printer.
Goodin also put the question to Mastodon, and cybersecurity professionals, many
with expertise in embedded-device hacking, were decidedly skeptical."
Via Violet Blue’s
Cybersecurity Roundup: January 23, 2024
https://www.patreon.com/posts/cybersecurity-23-97033007
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
